Category: Christianity

The Four Gs Update: Have You Got God?, Groceries?, Guns?, Gold?

In the next few paragraphs I’ll be tackling four issues that for many years, I’ve labelled “The Four Gs.” One of my contemporaries, Richard “Doc” Sweeny, even made the concept into and acronym: GGGG, for “God, Gold, Guns, and Groceries.” God. I consider faith in God the cornerstone of my family’s preparedness. Faith in God’s sovereign control of the future gives my family hope and peace in these troubled times. If there is no hope, then why prepare? Our hope is in Christ Jesus. Groceries. There are continuing reports of shortages around the country of wheat flour, corn meal, rice, …


Letter Re: Retreat Group Recruiting and Organization

Mr. Rawles, One subject that seems vastly under-represented in the bulk of survivalist literature is that of organizing and recruiting. It’s fairly obvious that in a real WTSHTF scenario, a lone wolf, or small family would be in a precarious position regardless of how well armed and well prepared they may be. A group of three or four would be hard pressed to maintain any real degree of security while going about the [gardening and other self-sufficiency] work required for basic survival. In my experience, it’s hard enough finding someone that’s even “like minded”, let alone skilled or intelligent. There’s …


Mental Preparations for Survival, by jc

For many people preparing to survive has become an obsession; a pursuit placed above all else in their lives. Others feel as if survival prep should be more of a priority if they could only afford to do more. Still others feel as if they may have already gone overboard in their preparations. Preparing for survival after TEOTWAWKI can make you feel overwhelmed, under-supplied, overspent, under-funded, over-your-head, or under-the-gun (no pun intended). There are those who have the ability to purchase a retreat, stock it with supplies and equipment for a year or more, and have enough to share with …


Letter Re: Advice for a Preparedness-Minded ROTC Cadet

Hi, I appreciate your advice. Here is my situation: I attend college full time in a post-industrial [Eastern United States] city that has had a 50% population decline in 30 years. Most people here are on welfare, and the largest employers are prisons. I am in a bit of a predicament because I only make about $6,000 per year, so I cannot really afford to spend much on supplies. My goal if things go downhill is to do a ruck march (assuming EMP, otherwise I would drive) with my ROTC-issued [TA-50] equipment to my family’s summer home in farm country …


Poll Results: Why are You Preparing to Survive?

Here is the second round of responses to this question: Those who are well educated enough to see a societal collapse of some sort or another in the making fall into two groups, the merrymakers and the preparers. The merrymakers don’t see life worth living post-SHTF, so they live it up now. We on SurvivalBlog are the preparers and have chosen to survive, but why? Our children? To rebuild civilization? Because the collapse will only be temporary? Because we can and we’re stubborn with a stronger than normal will to survive? The following is the second batch of responses. A …


Poll Results: Why are You Preparing to Survive?

Here is the first round of responses to this question: Those who are well educated enough to see a societal collapse of some sort or another in the making fall into two groups, the merrymakers and the preparers. The merrymakers don’t see life worth living post-SHTF, so they live it up now. We on SurvivalBlog are the preparers and have chosen to survive, but why? Our children? To rebuild civilization? Because the collapse will only be temporary? Because we can and we’re stubborn with a stronger than normal will to survive? The following is just the first batch of responses. …


Letter Re: Religious Versus Non-Religious Neighbors, Post-TEOTWAWKI

Mr. Rawles: You were quoted as stating: “I’m often asked why I make such a ‘big deal’ about choosing conservative Christians, Messianic Jews, or Orthodox Jews for neighbors. The plain truth is that in a societal collapse there will be a veritable vacuum of law enforcement. In such times, with a few exceptions, it will only be the God fearing that will continue to be law abiding. Choose your neighborhood wisely.” Perhaps you might clarify for your non-believing readers what side you would place them on come TEOTWAWKI. For the sake of full disclosure? It seems to me that in …


Letter Re: My Journey of Realization–Getting Back on Track and Stocking Up

Dear Mr. Rawles, I just finished reading your seminal work, “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” for the third time in as many weeks. In addition, after some internet searching I’ve found your blog, and am in the process of reading everything that I can, when I can. After reading so much of what’s on your mind, I thought I’d share a little of mine. First, foremost, and most importantly, I want you to know that your book was instrumental in leading me back to God, the Father of our savior Jesus Christ. I won’t delve into the diverse ways in …


Letter Re: Why Christianity? and Recommendations on the Great Lakes

Mr. Rawles, I just finished your novel (“Patriots”), after a marathon reading session that consumed my entire weekend. It was marvelous. I loved every aspect of the book except all of the religious references aimed towards Christians. Can a man of your obvious intelligence really believe that “being a good Christian” elevates someone morally to a higher level than perhaps a Muslim, Jew (yes you showed respect in the book for [a Jewish character’s] beliefs, but…), or myself a fence riding atheist? I want so much to believe in god, but it appears that god has abandoned this world. Secondly, …


Letter Re: The First Survivors–Concerning Spiritual Preparedness

Jim: In previous pieces I have written for SurvivalBlog, I have told of ways to prepare Field Kits, and of Shooting Skills, and other preparedness information. In today’s article I will write a little about spiritual preparedness: The first acting “survivalist” was probably Noah and his family. (Note: I do not take credit for being the first person to come up with this idea). Under God’s direction he built a “Bug out Vehicle” of sorts (Genesis 6:14-16). God gave them a way of escape, and direction to store the things they would need for the coming threat ahead as well …


A Biblical Defense of Preparedness, by N.

Before we get into this, a few folks may ask “Why prepare? God will take care of us.” If one wants to approach preparedness from a scriptural point of view, consider history when the Pharaoh of Egypt dreamed there would be seven plentiful years followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh was instructed to store corn “that the land perish not through famine.” The Pharaoh was told by God, through Joseph, to set food aside. In the Gospel books Matthew, Mark and Luke we see famine is once again predicted. If we follow God’s previous instructions, perhaps it is time …


David in Israel Re: Tzedaka (Charity) and the Tehillim (Psalms)

Tzedaka The highest level of tzedaka (charity–the same word root for righteousness) is where you never find out who receives and the receiver never finds out who has given. In the holy Temple there was a large box where people would drop off money and the poor would withdraw it was impossible to tell the donors form the receivers. In modern Jewish religious communities a Gamel Chesed (carrier of kindness) will deliver food packages on a regular basis as a family in hard times needs, these families will likely find envelopes of cash appear in coat pockets or under doors …


Letter Re: Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt

Hey, I am Mr. Sierra, and yes I bought a SurvivalBlog T-Shirt… as well as survival Freeze Dried Foods and Water Barrels and Pump…so following the advice of the Blog have done that. I do have a surplus Military Winter Sleeping Bag with a Gore-tex cover. Carrying my snubbie around as a concealed carry firearm while returning a video to store etc, is comforting, concealable, and better than my pointed index finger in my jeans pocket. 😉 One thing I read on the Blog today was about Stress Reduction [David in Israel’s article, posted on 12 Sept. ’05] which I …


Lessons Learned from Kosovo

The following are lessons that can be learned from the recent civil wars in the former Yugoslavia: #1: Pray, repent, and obey God’s commandments. I fervently believe that God will put his covenant people in the right place with the right friends at the right time. Read the 37th and 91st Psalms! If you are a Christian but a backslider, repent and renew your Christian walk! #2: If at all possible, don’t become a refugee. Refugees have a short life expectancy. If you have done any reading about the many wars of the last century you will note that many …


Dispensing Charity–Our Christian Duty

I intentionally emphasize the theme of Christian charity in my writings. I strongly encourage charitable giving both the present day and post-TEOTWAWKI. It is important to keep far more storage food on hand than you expect to consume. If all that you have is the bare minimum to supply your own family or retreat group, you won’t be in any position to dispense charity. If times get really hard and there is a breakdown of law and order, it might become dangerous to dispense charity to strangers on your own property. I described in ny novel Patriots how to dispense …